Grand Prix Update

After a two week break for the holidays, we finally got to play in the Swedish Grand Prix. Qualifying for this mini-tournament was our main goal for the first half of the season. To qualify, you must be in the top four teams in the Eliterien. If you've been keeping up with my blog you know that we barely squeaked in on the last day of the season's first half. This was also the first time since 2005 that Tierp qualified for it, so it was a pretty big deal for everyone involved. The two-day tournament is held in a town about three hours away called Katrineholm, it's a little bigger than Tierp and seeing actual stop lights was kind of weird.

We ended up being the fourth seed, so up first was first place Sollentuna on Wednesday night. Sollentuna is a team that we know we can beat. A couple months ago we played them at their gym and lost in a four set match that we definitely should have won. We lost sets one and four after leading 21-18 in both, so we really just need to learn to finish games off against them. They really don't do anything too special. They run a relatively fast offense and their main guys are one of their outsides and their Brazilian opposite, who is not very impressive at all.

We played a lineup that we haven't played with all year. Kyle and I were in the middle again, Eric Simon played opposite, Erik Brandsjo and Andy Wahlstrom played the outsidess with Peter setting and Martin Molynerd at libero. We started out playing pretty well but couldn't close out the close games against them as usual. We lost in three but it was a battle. So it was on to play Orkelljunga in the third place match.

The third place match was meaningless for all intents and purposes, but we are playing Orkelljunga this Sunday in our first match of the second half and a win against them would send a good message to them and the rest of the league. However, we would be playing without one of our best players, Kyle Masterson, who sprained his foot badly in the Sollentuna match when one of their middles came way under the net (not surprisingly, the refs missed the call). So it would be Matti Sandelin and I in the middle with the rest of the lineup the same.

So far this year, I'd say it was one of the most fun matches we have played. The whole five set match was back and forth. It was pretty impressive to watch and a lot of fun to play in. They took the first set before we battled back to win the second and third. The fourth set was a close battle to the end with them pulling out the victory to push it to five sets. We jumped out to the lead in the fifth set, leading 8-6 at the side switch and it was back and forth from there before we won 17-15. I finished the match with nine kills and three blocks so it was productive day for me. I'm slowly getting back into this middle thing but so far it's been a lot of fun. As long as I'm up early the rest of the offense will be very good for the rest of the season. And with Andy and Molle passing, we should have a great second half.

The rematch with Orkelljunga kicks it off on Sunday at five o'clock here. If you want to watch the match is the featured one for the online broadcast. Here's the link, set your alarms for 10 AM US Central time:

Tierp - Orkelljunga

Tack for reading! See you online!